sorry I didn't get back to you sooner he told found it on Amazon

Apollo 13 its a great game.
I will remove my mylar, I hope dont take out the inserts letters too.

hi
anybody who has plastics for sale i am looking for 2 on the left side of the playfield
or if there's anyone who can send me a hq scan , so i could make them ?

thank you in advance

greetings

tony

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Don't know if you got this sorted, but these Segas are... odd.

BOTH LEDs are the same. However, one is driven (the inboard one toward the backglass) and lit up red, the other is the receiver. There is a two-transistor network that reads *closed* when there is no red light on the receiver, but when the LED sees the same frequency light it emits it puts out a (very weak!) voltage and through the transistor network *opens* the circuit.

Thus, if you unplug the receiver, the switch test will extinguish (if it doesn't you have a short in the wiring.)

Mine was reading closed all the time (ball present) despite there being a good emitter (red very visible) and the receiver looking fine even under high magnification. This will cause the game to be unable to eject balls in test mode and while it will sort-of play with it screwed up eventually you'll get a double-stacked ball in the VUK and the game will be unable to lift it, plus it will complain about missing balls even thought they're not. If yours is still causing problems then remove the receiver opto from the bracket (power off!), hang it still connected to the plug, and hit it with a red laser pointer. If it THEN shows open (no ball) and closes when you remove the laser pointer (ball) the receiver is working.

I found the alignment is *very* critical, so check that too. There are rubber bushings with a brass sleeve in each of the mounting holes; make sure you're ok with how it's mounted, as if it's off a bit it will not register correctly. These are much more sensitive than the Williams/Bally style opto with a separate phototransistor!

Making sure I had good connections and that alignment was correct fixed mine up and it is now working properly. The emitter is just the LED and a current-limiting resistor; not much to go wrong there, and the replacements are $20+ so if I had a bad emitter board I'd buy a $1 LED and if necessary a through-hole resistor and do what had to be done to the board. On the receiver side it's trickier if the switch network is bad but I bet it's not; odds are it's the LED or the connector connections to the PCB instead.

The other possibility is the LEDs themselves may need replaced; the originals are apparently unobtanium but you can use a handful of others provided you replace BOTH sides (the emitted spectrum must match or it won't work.) I ordered a couple extras -- just in case -- Great Plains has them.

One note for anyone with this game -- The rocket flasher circuit has four 12v flasher bulbs on it -- two in the rocket, two in the backbox. This is very, very bad -- the flasher transistors on the power board are all TIP122s which have a maximum (surge) rating of 8A (continuous 5A.) Well..... 4 12V flashers in my game have a (including wire resistance) resistance of 0.8 ohms when cold (!!!) which means that when first turned on that string is going to draw *15* amps off the 12V rail, or roughly twice that rating. It won't draw it for long (incandescent lamps are negative-temperature coefficient so as they light their resistance goes up quite a bit) but....

That's very bad and I have a burned transistor on the power board as evidence of exactly that but no short on the wiring itself. Gee, I wonder why when overdriven by 2x rating, and yes, a TIP102 (plus switching those flashers to LEDs) is going in the board on that circuit. I *think* that's the only channel with 4 flashers; 2 should be ok (barely) with the stock transistors on the power board. If you can't replace that TIP122 right away remove the two backbox flashers on that circuit (or replace them with LEDs)

I'll post some more pictures and such as my work on the game (just got it the other day) continues.

Playfield mostly stripped; just a few more things to do and get off, then the cleaning and such begins. Besides being filthy the field itself is in shockingly good condition. The only "gotcha" is that it appears someone put a spring near the lower pop bumper to try to prevent stuck balls and it did some damage; I'm going to remove it unless there's a darn good reason not to, as I don't see how a ball can get stuck in there. She's getting a full flipper rebuild kit and I'm going to go through the pops, although they look ok and are functioning well. There is one roll pin on the trap door in the back that is extruding that I need to take care of - not bad, not bad for a machine that looks like it's never been completely torn down before.

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Here are some pictures of my Apollo 13 after I shopped it out this past winter. Used Comet LED's and Titan Competition Rings... "We're going to the MOON!"

...Uhhh thats a negative Jim...(I sold it )

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I've finished shopping and re-lamping my game, plus fixing the one flasher channel that was smoked (as noted above), and it plays very nicely. Left the mylar on for now... I may remove it, but there's always a risk in doing so of lifting inserts or similar, and I'm not sure I want to take that chance.

Anyone else with Apollo 13 find that the audio volume is less-than-inspiring?

I've checked the power and it's fine; in addition it's even across all three channels (sub in the cab and the two speakers), plus the attract mode sound, if you have it on, is quite loud. Thus, it ain't one of the driver modules (three channels) and it's not the power being down on volts (but still regulated and clean, which would do it too.)

But it just doesn't get very loud when in play. In fact I can run it in my house with the volume all the way up and it's reasonably-acceptable, but not mind-blowing -- something I'd never consider doing with any of my Williams/Bally machines. I did swap the speakers for the PinballPro system and the quality was definitely improved (the cheap DataEast speakers found in the cab originally are trash) but this is one of the few games with actual stereo sound, and I expected the ability to get louder from it.

I'm giving *some* consideration to hacking in an offboard amp and power for it (probably using an open-frame supply to avoid stressing the existing voltage regulators and such; I have no idea how much margin is left in the WhiteStar design and don't want to find out the hard way when a decent openframe regulated power supply is $25 or so!)

Any other thoughts?

Also, has anyone considered swapping in the WPC flipper mechs? Just rebuilt both and they're somewhat of a pain. Oh, and the bushings are not in the kit, nor are they "Williams/Bally" size. Considering that the bushings are one of the high-wear parts and one of the reasons you rebuild the flippers in the first place.... The Stern/Data East style bushing (looks a bit like a Williams, but has two small cutouts in the base that bolts to the plate) has the right playfield length and bolt pattern but the mech side of the bushing is about a washer-width short, which results in a not-quite-straight pull (bad for wear) and the EOS pawl hanging up on the mounting bolts (unacceptable.) That's fixable with a washer between the pawl and bushing when you insert the bat but that's a kludge -- and of course I didn't order separate bushings because I didn't think I'd need to. The mechs are also single-coil with a rather unique power-board design for them (separate driver board, etc and a normally-closed but logic-level EOS switch -- I understand newer Segas drive them from the regular coil power board.) In addition the EOS switches on my game were unbacked (no backing reed) which makes for sloppy disengagement of the full-power drive; swapping in some better ones wasn't hard but I did have to perform a bit of blade surgery to keep them from hanging up on the mech hex bolt washer. There was enough of a mess in there that I suspect that what I had wasn't quite OE style parts (at least not in full), although "by the book" it looked right.

The rebuild was successful but next time around I'm tempted to swap in the Williams mechs since the coil length and diameters are compatible, the rebuild kits are cheap, I'm familiar with them and I've got a bunch of other Williams/Bally pins (and thus only have one kit, bits and pieces to keep track of, ex-coils and NC EOS switches.) My concern is that on the left side the baseplate is *extremely* close to a GI socket and I don't happen to have a spare Williams plate laying around to see if there will be an interference problem.

here's something you never see.. A NOS prototype playfield. Note the added NASA logo on the left, and I Believe the faces are added to one of the lanes
ebay.com link: SEGA 1995 APOLLO 13 NOS PROTOTYPE PINBALL PLAYFIELD RARE

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I wonder why the earth & moon are just holes in the proto playfield ?? perhaps they had originally planned to have them in there as spinning discs?

I bet you're right.. I mean they did on twister. Perhaps they were even going to do a magnet spinner as part of the multiball? (slingshot manuever)

Your Apollo looks very good, well done!

Swapped WMS flipper mechs into my game -- I *really* like the results.

Hi

Could one of you nice folks tell me what your coil is for the up kicker? I have the online manual but I dont know if it is correct it has different coil listed thought the machine but some have the same part number....odd I would like to know what is in the actual machine... if that makes any sense

I'm in the club

Few questions guys:

How do I find out what version of ROM the table is running? - I think its running an old one. I see there is a ROM v5 - whats the benefit?

Secondly the launch handle- mine waggles left/right and doesn't spring back - is that right?

and finally, what balls are folks using? I think one or two of mine are magnetised - what to get a set of non-magnetisable balls? (do they even exist? )

Cheers,
Neil.

When you turn the game on it will tell you what it's running. 2.x is common, v5 is the latest. The only difference I've observed is that the v2 code will immediately fire a new ball when the moon captures one, while v5 waits for the ball to reach the VUK in the lower-left of the table. The latter code is IMHO more-stable; v2 will occasionally fire a new ball when the old one *fails* to be held and dropped as it makes the decision before the allegedly-captured ball trips one of the switches and thus the game doesn't know the "grab" failed, and then when the first one drains you're screwed. That's the only difference I know of but IMHO it's worth the upgrade since a new pair of ROMs (remember, there's one on the display board too and they must match versions!) is cheap.

The launch handle should turn only, not wiggle, and it should spring back. Check the mechanism inside the cabinet to see if your spring is broken or missing.

I use regular balls. If you're having issues with balls hanging up in the trough check the trough and switches; while it *can* be magnetized balls (if it's two of them stuck together it is) in my experience with the game far what looks like magnetic balls really aren't; I had to tweak the trough switches to prevent a ball from hanging up on one of them occasionally and leaving a gap in the balls in the trough, which confuses the game. The only real fix for magnetized balls if it happens is to replace them or, if you happen to have an old VCR tape degausser use it on them if they're otherwise in good condition.

I'm thinking about being in "the club" I will set the scene before the question >>> I've only owned Williams/Bally machines in the past/present, apart from a Stern Wyld fire when i was in my teens. I have the opportunity to purchase an Apollo 13 machine, it's in bits but complete and looks to be in pretty bloody good shape. I have some experience in putting pins back together and what i lack in some technical ability i have access to others that do. Here's the question/s to all you owners and lovers of this machine.... What is the main issues you guys would think of for someone considering buying this machine, that question includes the obvious, difficult or non existent parts, issues with fixing or even access to parts needing replacement and on the non technical side, enjoyment- long term playability. I will add that i have a Judge Dredd, Getaway, Revenge From Mars, Fish Tales and Bride of Pinbot currently in my lineup. If i've missed any other criteria then please fill in the gaps. TY!

This title is very layered (even for changing bulbs). Moon magnet sometimes has issues. The tactile switches on the upper left ball lock sometimes fail, and either it doesn't exist as a replacement or there's so few it's expensive to replace.

HI,

I have a Sega Apollo 13 pinball machine that was taken apart. I was able to get is mostly back together BUT. Really could use some internal pictures of the machine. I believe I have some parts missing from the coin mechanism and possibly missing the circuit board as well. I have a manual but it’s not very informative. Can you help or give me any ideas on who I can get this completed.

Thanks

Mike

Mike, tell me what you need and I'll shoot the pictures for you.

Mancave, the only real "issue" with the game is the 8-ball lock switch (to sense the balls); that strip switch is expensive if yours doesn't work properly, and it must or the game will get confused. It doesn't fail *often*, but if it does then bend over and grab your ankles.

The moon grab magnet also occasionally has problems but it's mostly due to wire chafe which is addressable without too much trouble. Mine has been ok.

The other issue to be aware of is that the factory used lower-capacity switching transistors on the flasher circuits (this is a common practice and somewhat defensible in that popping the channel beats a fire or more-serious damage in the event of a short) and there is one 4-gang flash circuit (2 on pf, 2 in backbox) that is (far) over the rating for that transistor on that specific channel. Mine was blown when I got it but there was no short; I uprated it and stuck LED flashers in the backbox and have had no further problems.

On the good side replacing the RAM and batteries with a NVRAM is about a 30 second job with no soldering required. IMHO that's a must as alkaline damage is one of those things that will kill games dead and on the way out cause all sorts of very hard-to-diagnose problems.

It is a very difficult game in terms of shot placement and such, and "rewards" a miss with a drain a high percentage of the time. It was quite a while after I bought mine before I managed to get a score on the board; while it looks deceptively simple ("shoot whatever flashes") it's quite hard to actually score on. I like the game; it doesn't have the layering depth of some but at this point it's likely to remain in my collection on a permanent basis.

Very well said!

Just joined the club this evening! Definitely agree on the difficult shots. Really narrow ramp lanes and big & fast bounceback penalties for missing.

I'd like to discuss this "over-powered" VUK more. Is this a problem specific to A13 or are there other DE/Sega titles that do this? I'll definitely be playing with either a different coil or modifying this one as it drives me nuts listening to this thing while playing.

The one that pops the ball up to the shooter lane? If so MAN I hear you. I put as thick as I could without going into the shooter lane foam self adhesive tape. The manual list a over powered coil. Please let me know ho you make out.

Anyone have any leads on a replacement moon?

Mine is melted and smells horrible. I pulled the mag coil out and the moon is toasty and too far gone.

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I don't see replacements anywhere.. not even ministry of pinball. This blog talks about testing the moon:
http://pinballnovice.blogspot.com/2015/12/apollo-13-my-moon-my-magnet.html

I'd say I'd pop mine open, measure, 3d model and 3d print a replacement, but the crater texture on the outside is going to be a pain to recreate.

I just purchased the game the other day

Should have gone thru it more before playing it for a awhile. Seller stated moon was melted but I didn't realize coil was locked on still should have checked.... Lesson Learned!

Since then, I have repaired the circuit for the moon and ordered new mag coil. The circuit is a very poor design, it goes thru the segment display board than to the aux driver than to the coil.

A VERY IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE IS THAT IF THE BLUE/WHITE WIRE ON J2 DOES NOT MAKE CONTACT THE MOON WILL LOCK ON. J2 USES A IDC CONNECTOR AND VIBRATIONS CAN AND WILL LOOSEN THIS WIRE OVER TIME!!!!!!!

To repair the circuit I had to fix the following (note this also repaired the 7 segment countdown display):

Bad components on 7 Segment Display Board:
------------------------------------------------------------
U2 - 74LS273 (if your moon works fine but countdown LED display does not replace this chip)
Q4 - 2n3906
Q5 - 2n3904
Q6 - 2n3904

Replace J2 IDC connector with molex connector.

Bad components on Moon Aux Board
-------------------------------------------------------------
Q3 - 20n10L replaced with IRL540 (NOT IRF540!!!!)
D10 - 1n4004

wow, no wonder why people warn of "check the moon magnet", poor design indeed

Wow that worries me.. I almost want to directly solder those wires just in case

I'm in the Apollo 13 club. Wooohooo!. These machines are so rare I couldn't be too picky trying to find one local. ...and by local I mean I drove 550 miles to pick it up. I got a reasonably good example and I'll plan to have it fully restored.

I tested if the moon moved on site but got home and discovered the magnet didn't grab the ball. Serious bummer because I felt like I had paid top dollar for this machine. I noticed a broken wire going to the moon and crossed my fingers that's all it was. Well just got it fixed last weekend and I was lucky; It works! So cool seeing that action happen since first seeing it as a kid in the 90's. Replaced both black wires with some more flexible and longer wire. Hopefully it wont get stuck and break again. I also tied the wire inside the moon to keep strain off the wire near the coil.

I have a few mod's I'd like to do so I'll keep everyone posted! This is a "forever" machine for me. It was my favorite as a kid in arcades and its really the machine I remember most from 90's pinball.

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I'm thinking of adding LED flashers to the 9 star lamps under the blue ramp. I just replaced those bulbs but I feel like they're too dim and not really noticeable under the ramp. What have you guys done or used with those? I'd like those to really pop because they come on when it's time to do the moon shot.

I put high-brightness cool-temp white LEDs in there and it made a big difference -- they pop nicely now when they sequence on for the moon shot and make it obvious that you want to shoot there.

http://www.ssbilliards.com/sale.html

I forget Lloyd sells stuff, nice find.. I'd JUMP on that

i messaged them last week no reply are they open?

In my opinion, A13 has the best multiball intro music out there.
When you start multiball and that alarm sound starts going..........Awesome.
I need to get an external sub hooked up to this thing as soon as possible.
-Kyros

Hi guys,

I recently bought an Apollo 13 and she is a beauty. Funny thing though, several months down the road the sound began to work on and off and would always cut out as soon as the first ball was served to the ball launch. Anyway, the sound is now dead and never works. I have gone through pinwiki and have checked all the voltages to the WhiteStar CPU/Sound board an I am getting close to 13 and -13 volts instead of the expected 12. The +5 volts and -5 volts read okay and the voltages on the amp chip are good. Are the main voltages too high at 13? Maybe I have a blown amp too. Reseated all the sound chips too and no go. Board is pristine with no battery damage. That said the display driver power board has some visible burn but DMD works fine. Can this board affect the sound?

I was about to order all new sound chips with the latest OS and a new amp chip but thought I would ask around.

Thanks guys!

Nos

Well I'm halfway in the club...

(not parting out... but waiting till I have a full machine one day)

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Anyone have a spare launch t-handle assembly laying around?
My Apollo 13 just has a button where the handle used to be.

mine is doing the same thing, with static. Very odd. Hope to find a resolution.

Hi,

I just brought back an A13 which needs a deep cleaning and restoration job.
I will need some pictures of the power connector into the cabinet, right from the transformer and also a picture of, which wires and where are they soldered on the knocker coil.
That will help me a lot , as the 2 elements have been outrageous cut... Thanks!

Has anyone had any experience with Slingshot Plastics for Apollo 13 from http://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts/playfield-parts/plastics/8401/slingshot-plastics-for-apollo-13

I've heard the JP repo kit they sell isn't exactly right. My left slingshot has been cracked since I bought the same. The repairs I've tried have't worked so looking to replace this.

Anybody here have a decal set? I just need the Sega apron decal and really don't want to spend $60 to get it.

hi
i wanne make a new APOLLO 13 TRANSLITE does anyone now on what material they printed this ?
tnx
tony

#9415 Awesome JOB !!!

Cleaning Apollo 13 coin door last night and noticed something... ummm, interesting?

I’m concerned where my pin has been

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I picked up an Apollo 13, but has a few issues. Does anyone have an extra main ramp or know where to get one? There's one listed here on Pinside, but it's an old listing and was already sold.